Josh Bernstein, DDS, Cosmetic Dentist

Back, when my son, Jack, was little, he asked me why my front tooth was brown. Years before that, I had had a root canal on my front tooth and it was becoming discolored. I also had a some old mercury amalgams, some old gold crowns and an ugly cap that was dark at the gumline.

My dentist, Dr. Bill Dickerson, Founder and President of the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, studied my mouth carefully. Since I wanted porcelain veneers in the front, and I wanted to replace my old restorations in the back, he wisely suggested that we build the new restorations to my ideal bite. He measured my muscle activity, my jaw function, my jaw position, and my joint on sophisticated computer equipment--the same equipment we now have in our office.

As it turned out, my jaw posture was 1mm collapsed in the vertical direction and 0.5mm too far backwards. This may not seem like much, but when my mouth was restored, some amazing things happened. First of all, my lifelong problem with headaches improved drastically. Secondly, I had been suffering with positional vertigo (dizziness) since the age of 40 and the vertigo suddenly got a lot better. Dr. Dickerson did not promise me anything and I did not expect this to happen--but it did.

It turned out that my jaw joint (TMJ) was pressing on the balance mechanism in my ears. The way my teeth fit together forced my jaw back, which caused the pressure on my inner ear. Since my bite position was also not comfortable for my chewing muscles, chronic muscle tension in my chewing muscles gave me the frequent headaches.

Once my teeth were restored and my bite was corrected, my teeth looked better, they felt better, the headaches improved, and so did the dizziness. This experience gave me a whole new perspective in helping my patients, and motivated me to learn as much as possible about complex dental problems. For years now, many of our patients have experienced dental transformations similar to mine. And, by the way, my son no longer teases me about having a front tooth that is brown.